TYPE 2 FUN BIKEPACKING - Silver Siouxon Loop

Great video from Chris Wilson.

The Siouxon Creek area recently reopened after getting damaged from the Big Hollow Fire in 2020. With a Labor day weekend I had three days off and decided to see if the Silver Siouxon Loop would go! I was a bit apprehensive about rough trail conditions and that proved to be justified. The trail was overgrown and full of blowdowns. But IT GOES! This route has some serious challenges, rough chunky terrain, steep hike a bike sections, exposed ridge riding, and overgrown sections. But you are rewarded with incredible views and a majestic forest. I ended up breaking the route up like this: Day 1: ~13 miles Day 2: ~ 36 miles Day 3: ~ 27 miles ** Bike/Setup ** I wouldn’t even consider riding this route on a bike without front suspension or at least 2.5 inch tires. Preferably I would have BOTH. I rode a Surly Karate Monkey with Front Suspension and 2.35 inch tires. I wished I had fatter tires on this one. I would try to aim for going light and compact. With the blowdowns, all the extra stuff on your bike is going to be more weight you have to lift. Also with the blowdowns and overgrowth, if you have crap dangling from your bike it may get caught on branches. ** Water ** Day 1 is full of water. Absolutely filter water at the spring at the top of Silver Star! After that you won’t have water until you hit Siouxon and that area has some exposed sections. On your way to the top of Silverstar there is a sign where Bluff Mountain trial starts. If you keep going straight you will go to the top of Silver Star. Off to the right, there is a trail which leads to the spring. I didn’t know this… and took the road up and bushwacked down to the spring. Oops. ** Other Route Notes ** If you do this when it is dewy or it has rained recently, you’re going to get soaked. There is SO much overgrowth. The camping around Mile 15 is good minus the loud trucks that go by on the gravel road near by. It woke me up a few times. There are lots of camping spots along Siouxon Creek. Overall I probably encountered around 50-60 blowdowns on the Siouxon Creek trail. Of those, only like 4-5 of them were a real pain in the ass to get over. One of them I would even call a bit sketchy. The blowdown wiped out the trail and you have to go over a fairly big log. There is a decent amount of exposure if you were to blow it.